"The Descendants" took the award for best movie drama at today’s Golden Globes, while George Clooney won best dramatic actor for his lead role in the film.

The made-in-Hawaii movie is an adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel about a man, played by Clooney, from a longtime kamaaina family who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife slips into a coma after a boating accident and he has to reconnect with his two young daughters.

Along the way, Matt uncovers a staggering secret about his marriage and comes to reevaluate the principles under which he’s lived his life.

The black-and-white silent film "The Artist" came away with the most prizes with three wins at the Golden Globes, but the show spread the love around among a broad range of films and TV shows.

Wins for "The Artist" included best musical or comedy and best actor in a musical or comedy for Jean Dujardin. Other acting winners were Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, and Octavia Spencer, while Martin Scorsese earned the directing honor.

Streep won for dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," her eight win at the Globes.

Williams won for actress in a musical or comedy as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn," 52 years after Monroe’s win for the same prize at the Globes. Dujardin won for musical or comedy actor for the silent film "The Artist."

The supporting-acting Globes went to Plummer as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in the father-son drama "Beginners" and Spencer as a brassy housekeeper joining other black maids to share stories about life with their white employers in the 1960s Deep South tale "The Help."

Scorsese won for the Paris adventure "Hugo." It was the third directing Globe in the last 10 years for Scorsese, who previously won for "Gangs of New York" and "The Departed" and received the show’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement two years ago.

He won over a field of contenders that included Michel Hazanavicius, who had been considered by many in Hollywood as a favorite for his black-and-white silent film "The Artist."

Dujardin became the first star in a silent film to earn a major Hollywood prize since the early days of film. He won as a silent-era star whose career unravels amid the rise of talking pictures in the late 1920s.

It’s a breakout role in Hollywood for Dujardin, a star back home in France but little known to U.S. audiences previously. His French credits include "The Artist" creator Michel Hazanavicius’ spy spoofs "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "OSS 117: Lost in Rio."

"The Artist," which led the Globes with six nominations, also won the musical-score prize for composer Ludovic Bource but lost out on three other awards, including the screenplay prize for Michel Hazanavicius.

While the musical or comedy categories at the Globes offer recognition for lighter films amid Hollywood’s sober-minded awards season, the winners usually are not serious contenders for the Oscars. The last time the winner for best musical or comedy at the Globes went on to claim best-picture at the Oscars was nine years ago with "Chicago."

This time, though, "The Artist" and Dujardin have enough critical mass to compete at the Oscars with dramatic counterparts such as "The Descendants" and Clooney.

Both films have a good mix of laughs and tears. "The Artist" could be called a comedy with strong doses of melodrama, while "The Descendants" might be described as a drama tinged with gently comic moments.

Directed by Alexander Payne ("Sideways"), "The Descendants" provided a more down-to-earth role for Clooney, who’s often known for slick, high-rolling characters such as those in his "Ocean’s Eleven" heist capers and or the legal saga "Michael Clayton."

Other Golden Globe winners included Woody Allen who took the screenplay honor for his romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris," the filmmaker’s biggest hit in decades. Never a fan of movie awards, Allen was a no-show at the Globes, where he previously won the screenplay honor for 1985’s "The Purple Rose of Cairo.

The wins boost Williams, Spencer and Plummer’s prospects for slots at next month’s Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.